Chapter 770 Development and Change
Li Nai bid farewell to Schneider and left Fort Victory, then went straight to the train station north of Fort Victory, preparing to take the bus to Sanya New City. He purchased a villa there in his own name earlier. Although he doesn't live there much every year, he has always arranged for someone to be responsible for daily cleaning and maintenance, so he can move in at any time. This time he was expected to stay in Hainan Island for a while, and would have to report to Fort Victory from time to time. Li Nai planned to settle there, so that commuting between Fort Victory and Sanya City would not be too hard.
Li Nai skillfully sent his entourage to buy tickets with circulating coupons, and then entered the station through the ticket gate to wait for the train. Fort Victory Station has not changed much since it was first completed. It still only has two platforms, one in the south and one in the north. Paints of different colors are used on the platform floor to mark the waiting positions for Class A carriages, Class B carriages and freight cars. The Class A carriages are high-end carriages prepared for Chief Haihan, senior cadres and wealthy foreign businessmen, with soft seats inside. , the windows are also made of glass, and there is only one small car in each train, so the fare is naturally higher. B-class carriages are the first choice for ordinary naturalized citizens. The fares are cheap but the riding environment is relatively poor. There are only long wooden benches in the carriages and the windows are simple and rough iron bars. During the daily traffic rush hour, one class One or two hundred people would be crammed into the carriage, and sometimes people would even climb on the roof.
Li Nai waited for about a stick of incense and finally saw a train slowly approaching on the railway track in the distance, puffing out white smoke. The staff on the platform blew the brass whistle loudly to remind people waiting to retreat beyond the safety line drawn on the ground.
When the train was first opened in the early days, accidents often occurred where people were squeezed off the platform and off the tracks just to watch the excitement. After several fatalities, the Ministry of Justice issued extremely strict station management regulations, which prohibited trains from entering and exiting the station. If you follow the instructions of the staff and exit outside the safety line, you will be fined for the first two times. If you are caught for the third time, you will be sent directly to a hard labor camp for one month of reeducation through labor. This measure has been implemented for almost two years and has effectively helped passengers develop better riding habits. Accidents at stations have been reduced to very few.
Li Nai was also amazed by the miracle when he took the train for the first time. He even thought that if such a railway could be built between Guangzhou City and Panyu County, it would greatly enhance the importance of Lijiazhuang in Pearl River shipping. However, in the end, this plan only existed in his mind and failed to become reality. Such a big project involves more than just money. The ownership of the land along the route is enough to make it aborted. Even though the Li family is extremely powerful in Panyu County, a lot of Panyu County's land is in Guangzhou. Li Nai didn't need to think carefully to know that it was impossible for these people to use the land to build the railway.
In addition, local officials are not all fools. The Ming army generals stationed in Guangzhou must have seen the military risks of such a convenient passage from the Pearl River estuary to Guangzhou City, and they would definitely stop such a project. Build.
But this kind of thing will not happen on Hainan Island where Haihan is the master. First of all, all the land here is controlled by the Haihan Executive Committee. Even if some people are dissatisfied with the land acquisition and road construction, there is no way to resist. Secondly, almost all the local government officials have been ignored by Haihan. Now Haihan doesn't even need to notify the government officials if he wants to build a railway, he can just do it himself. It is said that Haihan is currently planning to build a railway between Qiongzhou Fucheng and Danzhou to connect the two major cities in Qiongbei with rails. If this railway with a length of more than 200 miles can be completed and opened to traffic, it will undoubtedly become the fastest mode of transportation between the two places.
Li Nai's wish to take a train in his hometown is probably unlikely to be realized in the near future. Unless Guangdong changes hands in the future and Haihan comes to take charge, it may become a reality, but Li Nai does not expect much for this. Hope, after all, this is really treasonous to the people of the Ming Dynasty.
Li Nai and his entourage successfully checked their tickets and boarded the train. There were only five or six naturalized citizen cadres riding with them in the first-class carriage. They were all dressed as Han Chinese with shaved heads and different clothes. They were very different from ordinary naturalized civilians dressed in Ming people. . However, Li Nai's level of dealing with the Haihan people was far beyond that of ordinary people. He could tell at a glance that these people were not authentic Haihan people.
These naturalized civilian cadres all looked very young, in their early twenties at most. Although they did not know Li Nai, they all bowed to him. Li Nai listened to their conversation and found that the northern accent was quite obviously different from that of the Haihan people. They should all be locals, but they still tried hard to speak the "ordinary Mandarin" currently promoted by Haihan. Li Nai knew without asking that these young people should all be "Haihan scholars" trained by the Haihan education system.
Although the areas under Haihan's rule did not prohibit scholars from participating in the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty, and even took various care measures for students who took the exams, Haihan was also gradually building its own "imperial examination" system, establishing its own schools, and providing qualified students with All are provided with employment. Talents who can excel in this system will enter various departments of Haihan to serve, and the threshold for becoming an official is much lower than that of the Ming Dynasty imperial examination. Some of the naturalized teenagers who enrolled in early school have been assigned to various Haihan official institutions one after another. Those who have done well, such as Fu Li, Yu Xiaobao, Zhang Qianzhi, Huang Que, etc., have already been in their respective institutions. He has made good achievements in his position.
Li Nai has also had contact with some of them and knows that these young people from poor backgrounds are extremely loyal to Haihan who changed their life trajectories. Most of them no longer regard themselves as The people of the Ming Dynasty are the people of Haihan in the true sense - although the Ming Dynasty officials have not yet recognized the existence of such a country in Haihan.
These young naturalized civilian cadres were not the most fanatical Haihan supporters. Li Nai knew that the real fanatics actually gathered in another place, that is, the Haihan militia. Because of the work of the "Golden Shield" and his personal hobbies, he has visited the training conditions of the Haihan Militia more than once, and has personally experienced the almost brainwashing propaganda methods in the militia. Ordinary soldiers Needless to say, as long as there is a "long" officer, almost all of them are fanatical Haihan supporters. It is no exaggeration to say that most of them are determined to fight to the death for Haihan, and are also very keen on using military means to realize Haihan's external expansion. Li Nai believed that if there was not an authoritative organization like the Executive Committee above, which would maintain long-term peace between Haihan and Ming Dynasty out of overall consideration, the Haihan militia would have already sent troops to capture the Pearl River Delta area. Li Nai looked out the window. The train was passing through the bay between Yulin Peninsula and Luhuitou Peninsula. He could see the huge docks lined up on the seaside. The current Victory Port Shipyard is said to have more than 2,000 employees, and shipbuilding orders keep this place in a round-the-clock operation. New ships of all sizes are launched from here every month, and more than 80% of the combat ships in the Haihan Fleet are also built here. Although the number of shipbuilding in this place may not be comparable to the total shipyards along the Pearl River in Guangdong, the tonnage of ships launched is no longer the same.
There are tall bamboo sheds and bamboo fences around the dock where warships are built, so the construction inside cannot be seen from the train. However, because of his special status, Li Nai had visited key departments of the shipyard more than once, so he was quite familiar with the situation inside. From the top of the mast that stretched high into the sky, he could tell that one of the shipyards was building a "Dignity-class" warship - only the main mast of such a giant warship could extend to such a high height. in the air.
Li Nai personally does not have much objection to the actual control formed by Haihan in the South China Sea, including the Pearl River Estuary. After all, the Haihan people did not harm the interests of the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants by doing these things. The ruthless pirates. For a law-abiding maritime businessman like Furifeng, having a relatively authoritative force like Haihan to maintain order at sea is a much-desired good thing. "Golden Shield Escort" has also begun to undertake maritime escort business, many of which require cooperation with the militia navy. The sea areas that the navy can control are areas where "Golden Shield Escort" can be confident and bold and have unimpeded access. From the perspective of a practitioner, Li Nai really hopes that the Haihan Navy can control more areas.
After the Haihan Navy gradually took over the waters of the Pearl River Estuary, the Guangdong and Guangxi Navy also "knowingly" slowly withdrew from this area. At present, the navy's headquarters has moved westward to the Huangmaohai area, which is the estuary of the Xijiang River. You can go upstream from the Xijiang River directly to Zhaoqing Mansion, where the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi is located. The Haihan military also has a tacit understanding of such a division of spheres of influence and has never sent warships to the Xijiang River Basin, including the estuary.
Li Nai has seen these subtle changes in the situation, but as a businessman whose interests are deeply entangled with Haihan, he will never side with the government again. And this attitude is not unique to him. His family, the business partners he has contact with, and even some people in the officialdom are more willing to side with Haihan regarding the quietly ongoing changes in the situation in Guangdong and Guangxi. Li Nai once heard Schneider use the term "vested interests" to evaluate this behavior, which accurately reflected that the root of this choice of stance still lies in interests.
Although most people will still talk about the Ming Dynasty, Li Nai believes that these people's hearts are as open as his own. The places occupied by Haihan will probably be like Hainan Island and will no longer belong to the Zhu family. With Haihan's development speed, there is no military obstacle to annexing more Ming territory. It depends more on whether the Haihan people need it.
Thinking of this, Li Nai couldn't help but look out the car window in the direction of the Luhuitou Peninsula. Although it was impossible to see the scene on the other side of the hill from the car due to the obstruction of the Luling hills, it was not difficult for Li Nai, who was familiar with the local conditions, to Imagine the intense training scene at the Army garrison.
The army base of the Haihan Militia is on the Luhuitou Peninsula. Although Li Nai did not know the size of the troops stationed there, he believed that the local forces were sufficient to defend the two key points of Victory Port and Sanya Port. The area adjacent to the Army Base and located at the southern end of the Luhuitou Peninsula is the quarantine area where Sanya receives immigrants. From an immigrant to a soldier of the Haihan Militia, the distance is just a wall. Today, it is definitely unlikely that the Ming Dynasty will take back these areas through military means. It is thankful to God that it can protect the territory of the mainland from being encroached by Haihan.
Of course, the emperor who was far away in the Forbidden City in Beijing probably did not know what was happening in the south, because the memorials reported to the court by the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi and officials at all levels did not mention that this area had been renamed and belonged to someone else. In the past, the taxes that Qiongzhou could pay to the court were very limited, and no one in the court paid much attention to this remote area known as the ends of the earth. Nowadays, the Haihan people pay the taxes due to Qiongzhou Prefecture every year, completely replacing the functions of the local government. Naturally, no one in the court will notice this silent change. Even if relevant news reaches the capital, no senior official will believe these rumors - how can anyone rebel and not raise a flag to kill officials, but also pay taxes to the court on time and in amount every year?
However, it is hard to say how long Haihan will continue to pay taxes to the Ming Dynasty. According to the information Li Nai knows, scholars from Qiongzhou, Danzhou, Yazhou and other counties have already signed a letter to the Haihan Executive Committee. Demanded that Hainan Island be independent from the Ming Dynasty and officially classified as Hainan territory. If this initiative becomes a reality one day, Li Nai believes that the governments of Guangdong and Guangxi will probably have to hold their noses and admit it. As for whether Long Yan would be furious after the report was reported to the court and order troops to attack him, he didn't think it was very likely. The armies in Fuzhou and Guangzhou knew how powerful the Haihan militia was, and they would not be able to do anything even if there was an order from the court. He would not take the initiative to start a war with the Haihan people, and would probably just go through the motions to bluff them. If the court wanted to punish the local officers because of the unfavorable outcome of the war, it might force something even bigger - after all, he would switch jobs to the Haihan people. The Han militia military attachés of the Ming Dynasty were no longer rare, and there were several at the rank of generals. It was not impossible for people to change jobs in the Ming army in a hurry.
As for dispatching troops from the mainland to attack Qiongzhou, it is even more unrealistic. Not to mention other things, it is difficult to adapt to the climate alone. Moreover, the official circles of Guangdong and Guangxi, which have many interests with Haihan, will probably not cooperate with the actions of external troops. Even if the imperial court can mobilize an army of 350,000 to 570,000 to Guangdong, there is probably not much chance of marching to the island to fight the Haihan people - with the maritime armed forces at an absolute disadvantage, there is no chance that the troops assembled on the mainland can pass through the Qiongzhou Strait. All minuscule.
(End of chapter)